NeoNara || TXT || taebin || yeonkai

2014: Friday, Part Four

2014, DAY ONE
Friday, August 15, 2014 5:14 PM

Soobin gets dragged to the food tent by Beomgyu and Kai. Shelly is still sitting under it, from where she and Mayumi had been talking about performing rights organizations and mechanical royalties and whatever else she had been doing to keep Mayumi away from Taehyun. And it had worked...sort of.

"She left in a complete huff," Shelly says, stress eating empty tortilla shells from the food bar. "She signed off on all the paperwork, then said something about how I was going to attack Taehyun and take him away from her, and that she was "onto me" or something. Then, she ran off. I texted you guys, but I don't know if you got it in time."

"We didn't." Soobin collapses into a chair. "What food is up there?"

"Vegetarian and organic."

"Gross. I want chocolate."

"One chocolate sundae, coming up," Beomgyu says, and he runs over to the dessert stand.

"Dessert for dinner?" Kai asks.

Shelly chuckles. "When your heart is broken, you need all the help you can get, and that help usually comes from ice cream. I should know. The first time I dated someone, I threw everything I had into it. But it just wasn't right, just wasn't meant to be. Over the next month, after we had broken up, I sat on the couch, went through five pints of Ben & Jerry's, and watched He's Just Not That Into You at least twenty times. I swear Netflix has that DVD on re-order for me. But then I met Angel, and, well, she's my angel."

"That is the most talkative I have ever heard you be," Soobin says with a laugh. This is true; Shelly is usually the quiet, introverted one, while Angel talks enough for the both of them.

"What can I say? I just really love my Angel."

Beomgyu comes back with an entire plate full of chocolate ice cream, sprinkles, and chocolate sauce. It looks like a mess, which is why Soobin tells himself he has to eat it quickly. And eat it quickly he does, starting with the top, taking a bite. With every bite he takes, he thinks a little bit of Taehyun, of how close he was to him in the RV just now, of how he didn't smell right at all, of how he should have kissed him but couldn't.

Nothing has changed. But that's not true at all. Everything has changed.

"I'm so over this," he says, eating the rest of the ice cream in one sitting. Then, for good measure, he goes up to the salad bar and grabs half a plate of chicken salad and half a plate of pasta salad. "I'm so done."

"You don't mean that," Beomgyu says. "Not with the way you were just looking at him."

"What am I supposed to do?" Soobin doesn't realize he's crying until he starts tasting tears along with the melting ice cream. "Taehyun's got Mayumi. She won't leave him alone. And he wants to break up with her, but he won't just do it."

"Let's wait until the set tomorrow to see how things go," Shelly says. "Until then, you should eat all the ice cream you can."

But Soobin isn't able to shake that weird feeling in his gut, that feeling that tells him he's stuck in a nightmare. The only person he wants is held captive by an evil witch, and Soobin himself is somehow under her spell. He eats the ice cream, and then he asks to go back to the RV.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to a show with us?" Beomgyu asks. "We're going to the Glittering Light set."

"Nah, I'm good," Soobin says, and he takes the keys back to lot 313. When he unlocks everything, he suddenly realizes just how alone he is. The RV is quiet and dark, Beomgyu and Kai are at their show, and Taehyun is...with Mayumi. Somewhere. Not with Soobin.